


Never Really Gone

by missthingsplace



Category: Ghost Whisperer, Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, One Shot, Ratings: G, Tissue Warning, rs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 13:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missthingsplace/pseuds/missthingsplace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p> While watching Jack mourn his own untimely death Ianto meets a woman who wants to help them both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Really Gone

**Title:** Never Really Gone  
**Author** **:** [ ](http://missthingsplace.livejournal.com/profile) [**missthingsplace**](http://missthingsplace.livejournal.com/)   
**Parings/characters:** Ianto, Jack, OC  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Torchwood or any of the characters ... unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while.   
**Summary:**  While watching Jack mourn his own untimely death Ianto meets a woman who wants to help them both.  
 **Warnings:** Angst, fluff,   
**Spoilers:** Anything is fair game   
**Rating:** G  
  
 **A/N:** The angst bunnies hit big time last night, inspired by something i was watching on TV ... sorry ... tissues maybe required. 

“You shouldn't be here,” a woman's voice said softly.

“I don't want to leave, I can't leave him,” Ianto told her, not even turning to see who he was speaking too. “look at him.”

The woman watched the other man for a few minutes, she couldn't miss the red-rimmed eyes or the fresh tears that rolled down the man's cheeks again to follow the tracks of the previous ones to drip unhindered off his chin onto his lap as he stared into the corner of the room.

“He's in mourning, he'll mourn whether you're here or not,” she said softly. “you can't help him, he'll get through this in time.”

“Time?” Ianto snapped the question, turning his head to see the woman behind him. “Just who the hell are you and how can you see me?”

“I see Ghosts,” the woman told him gently. “I want to help you go into the light.”

“It's too soon, I shouldn't be dead!” Ianto retorted. “we barely had enough time together to realise that we loved each other, let alone anything else. When I was dying I confessed my love for him and he didn't say it back, I thought he didn't reciprocate my feelings but now … I can't leave him.”

“A wise person once told me that no-one ever really dies,” she replied. “even when we're gone from the physical world we live on in peoples hearts and minds, every time they think of us or feel that pull on their heart strings it stops us being completely gone.”

“It's not that simple,” Ianto told her with a soft sigh, watching Jack lift the glass of brandy from his desk, a tear plopping softly into the amber coloured liquid just before he took a sip. “his lifeline is longer than anyone else, in a thousand years I'll just be a blip in time, despite what he promised.”

“We'll all be a blip in time by then, even him,” she said gently.

“Nope, not him,” Ianto told her. “he gets to live forever, it's hard to explain but he can't stay dead.”

“That's got to be hard on him,” she replied sympathetically, but not really believing him.

Ianto nodded. 

“He's lost so many people he loved, I promised him I wouldn't leave him but here I am and he can't see me, he can never see me again,” Ianto told her sadly. “I'll never again feel his lips on mine, his arms around me, the heat of his body against mine when ...”

Ianto stopped, feeling himself blush and wondered how that was even possible now he was … no, he couldn't even think the word again.

“I could talk to him for you?” She said. “Tell him how you feel?”

“What good would that do?” Ianto asked.

“It would give you some closure, help you move on,” she suggested.

“You would do that, for me?” Ianto replied.

“It's what I do,” she answered.

“I can't promise that I'll be ready to move on,” Ianto told her firmly.

“But it'll be a start,” she said with a small smile.

“Fine,” Ianto agreed. 

She moved away from the window Ianto was looking through and knocked hard on the door of the flat, waited a few moments and when no-one answered she knocked again a little harder.

“Yes?” Jack asked abruptly, flinging the door open. “Whatever it is you're selling I'm not interested.”

“I'm not selling anything, someone asked me to speak to you,” she said carefully. “Ianto.”

“Ianto's dead, dead and gone and it's all my fault!” Jack snapped back at her, a fresh tirade of tears pouring down his face. “Just leave me alone.”

“Wait, please,” she asked, pressing her hand to the door to stop him closing it. “he wants you to know it wasn't you're fault, that he went there willingly, no-one forced him.”

“Just who the hell are you?” Jack asked, voice cracking with emotion. “If you're here to try and get money out of me you've come to the wrong person.”

“I don't want money, I just want to help,” she replied calmly. “I can see the dead, I help them move into the light.”

“There is no light, all there is is darkness and Ianto's going to end up there alone for all eternity now,” Jack argued. “I've seen it, so many times.”

“He told me, Ianto told me that you couldn't die,” she said softly. “I can't begin to understand how and he never explained but I know there's a light, I have no idea why you see darkness though, perhaps it's because you can't stay dead?”

“But it's not just me, Suzie said all she saw was darkness too, when she was brought back,” Jack argued. 

“Not everyone gets to go into the light, I'm not the only one that can see ghosts,” she told him. “and not all the others send them into the light, some are lured into the dark and the clutches of evil.”

“Hell?” Jack asked, moving aside and finally letting the woman in.

“No, I don't think it's that simple,” she sighed. “we can only find out for sure when it's our time to go.”

“That could be a very long time away for me,” Jack told her quietly. “what else did Ianto say?”

“That he missed being able to feel you, kiss you,” she answered. “that he still worried he would just become a blip in time, that he still didn't know if you loved him for sure.”

“Of course I bloody loved him,” Jack snapped. 

“Then why didn't you tell me?” Ianto asked.

“He wants to know why you didn't tell him, when he was dying?” She repeated to Jack.

“Because it felt like if I admitted it then and there he really was dying,” Jack replied, his voice no more than a whisper. “and now it's too late.”

“It's never too late,” she said. “tell him now.”

“But I can't see him,” Jack answered. “how will I know that he believes me?”

“I can see him, tell him,” she urged.

Jack nodded and then dropped his gaze to the floor for a second to collect his thoughts before looking up again. 

“Where is he?” Jack asked her.

“He's standing right in front of you,” she answered.

Jack cleared his throat. “I'm sorry, I know you don't blame me for your death but I have to take some of the responsibility,” Jack began. “and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life but I have to tell you that I lied, about not wanting us to be labelled a couple.” Jack paused for a second to gulp down a sob before continuing. “I wouldn't have cared if you had gone around calling me your boyfriend, I should have told you I loved you a long time ago Ianto, not just because I was losing you. I love you Ianto.”

“I know you do Jack, I just needed to hear you say it,” Ianto whispered, tears falling freely down his cheeks. 

“He knows you do, he just needed to hear you say so,” she repeated, her own eyes welling up with the emotion in the room.

“He will be safe in the light, won't he?” Jack asked quietly.

She nodded. “Yes, and he'll be there waiting for you when you finally get to join him.”

“That could be a very long time,” Jack said sadly.

“I don't think time works in the same way there, as it does her,” she said reassuringly. “time has no relevance to the deceased.”

“Will you wait for me Ianto?” Jack asked.

“Always,” Ianto replied simply.

“He said always,” she repeated.

“Will there be people waiting for him? He won't be alone there?” Jack asked her.

“He'll be with family and friends,” she said. “he just told me that he can't wait to see Toshiko again and even Owen.”

“I miss them too ...” Jack replied, trailing off. 

The woman watched as Ianto moved closer to Jack and pressed his lips to the other man's for a second or two before pulling back.

“Ianto?” Jack asked, touching his fingers to his lips.

The woman nodded and finally her won tears spilled down her face.

“Oh god, I felt him kiss me,” Jack said, a small smile creeping through the tears.

“He did, he did kiss you,” she told him happily. 

“I just need to spend one more night with him,” Ianto told her. “I will go into the light in the morning.”

“He wants to stay the night,” she told Jack. “but he'll be gone in the morning.”

“But I can't hear or see him,” Jack said sadly.

“Just talk to him, that's all he needs,” she replied. “I'll see myself out.”

Jack waited until she'd left the room and headed into the bedroom, assuming Ianto was following him and climbed into bed, laying on one side and facing the other.

“I really hope you're laying next to me,” Jack said to the empty space beside him. “I wish I could hold you and kiss you one last time but if this is all I can get, then I'm going to make the most of it.

With that Jack began to talk, he told Ianto absolutely everything about himself, all his secrets and of his travels with the Doctor and just before he finally slipped into sleep he told him over and over again just how much he loved him.

Ianto watched him sleep for a long while, not moving from beside him until the sun came up and then left the flat, finding the woman waiting outside for him.

“You came back,” Ianto stated.

“I didn't want you to have to do this alone,” she smiled. “can you see the light?”

“Yep, it's kinda hard to miss,” Ianto admitted, looking at it. “it's somehow very alluring.”

“It's time Ianto, time for you to go.” she told him.

“I can see my mam,” Ianto told her, taking a step forwards. “and Toshiko and Owen.”

“They're waiting for you, go to them,” she urged.

“I will see Jack again, won't I?” Ianto asked.

“Yes, I promise,” see answered. 

“Then this is goodbye,” Ianto told her and walked directly into the light, vanishing along with it moments later.

The woman glanced up at the flat and spotted the other man gazing out the window and then disappearing again to open the door. He came running down the steps from the flat to her side wearing nothing more than a dressing gown.

“He's gone, hasn't he?” Jack asked sadly.

“Yes, he's with his family and friends now,” she answered.

“He saw them?” Jack replied.

“He did, but he didn't leave until he was sure he would see you again one day,” she said with a smile. “he'll be waiting for you Jack, never forget that.”

“Never,” Jack replied. “he really won't ever just become a blip in my lifetime.” 

“I have to go now, look after yourself Jack,” she said and moved towards her car.

“Hey, you never told me your name?” Jack called out to her.

“Melinda, Melinda Gordon,” she called back.

“Thank you Melinda,” Jack replied and then ran back up to the flat.

He sank back down onto the bed and pulled out the photo album from under the bed and went through it again slowly, taking in the pictures of Ianto growing up right though to the present day and then closed it with a small smile.

“No, I'll never forget you my love,” Jack told the room and began to make plans to leave the planet, the photo album first on the small list of items he would be taking along with him.

The End. 


End file.
